Williams Named First Team Preseason All-America by Sports Network

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Harvard senior offensive
tackle James Williams has been named to The Sports Network's 2009
Preseason All-America First Team in an announcement made Thursday
afternoon.

Williams, who has reached All-America status since his sophomore
season, was previously recognized by the Consensus Draft Services
(CDSdraft.com) Preseason All-America team

Williams has started every game since his sophomore season and
has been a mainstay for a Crimson offense that has ranked among the
nation's leaders in virtually every statistical category while
winning back-to-back Ivy League championships.

This marks the second season that Williams has been tabbed to
the preseason list from The Sports Network - which has also given
him season-end honors since 2007.

Harvard has had at least one All-American in each of the last 10
years while posting the nation's second-best winning percentage
this decade.

Since 2000, Harvard owns a .775 winning percentage (69-20) -
second-highest in the Football Championship Subdivision and sixth
highest in all of Division I. Over the past five seasons, Harvard
is 41-9. Harvard is 36-6 at Harvard Stadium dating back to 2001
while winning 16 of its last 17 games there.

The Crimson has registered at least seven wins in each of the
last eight years, making Harvard the first team in the history of
Ivy League football to post such a string of successful seasons.
Two years ago, Harvard became the first Ivy team to post a string
of seven such seasons together. The current stretch is the
Crimson's best eight-year run since a 28-year streak of seven-plus
win seasons came to an end in 1911. The program has won 64 games
over the past eight seasons for the best stretch since a stretch
from 1908-1915 when the program also won 64 games.